India is a rapidly developing nation with a population of over 1.4 billion people. With such a large population, there is a wide range of social issues that need to be addressed. From poverty and inequality to gender discrimination, India faces numerous social challenges that impede its progress.
In this exclusive dialogue with TheCSRUniverse, Ms. Sunanda Rangarajan, Chief Executive Officer,Omega Forum for Social Impact (OFSI), opines that the challenges India faces are daunting, but not insurmountable. Through wide-reaching initiatives and investments in education, healthcare, and infrastructure, the newly announced CSR wing of Omega Healthcare is addressing these social issues and creating a more equitable society.
For more insights, read the full interview below.
Q. Please tell us about the recent evolution of your CSR wing into the Omega Forum for Social Impact (OFSI) and how this entity aligns with the broader vision and mission of Omega Healthcare.
A. The forum was set up as an independent foundation to extend and amplify Omega Healthcare's commitment to the community through its development initiatives. The firm has supported over 200,000 individuals since 2015 and is looking to expand its scope beyond the traditional limits of corporate CSR.
The goal is to empower women as the key decision-makers and drivers of community prosperity through entrepreneurial enablement, microcredit, and skill development to help them grow their livelihoods and communities through strategic giving.
Omega Forum for Social Impact (OFSI), registered as a Section 8 Company, integrates healthcare with socio-economic upliftment, focusing on critical areas like maternal, menstrual, and mental wellness. OFSI’s approach combines preventive and curative health services to foster resilient and self-sustaining communities.
Q. Your initiatives are designed to integrate healthcare with socio-economic upliftment. Could you share some examples of cases or scenarios where you could achieve this goal?
A. The foundation currently works closely with individuals from tribal communities through various workshops and programmes focused on social and mental well-being, menstrual hygiene, financial literacy and healthcare programmes addressing nutritional requirements.
Economic Impact - We provide Interest micro-loans for women at Chengelpattu and Taragambadi, Tamil Nadu and Chegicherla, Hyderabad to set up their business with the guidance of best practices of business. The interest-free micro loans project was co-created with the community at Tarangambadi starting with interest-free micro loans for 131 individuals the repayment rate is close to 94% which is used as revolving loans to other individuals, with the success rate of the project was expanded to other locations like Chengelpattu and Tarangambadi touching 200 individuals additionally.
Once these women become the beneficiaries, they are given access to financial credit and also have access to awareness programs, exposure visits and workshops with subject experts on topics like socio-economic well-being, financial literacy, safeguarding wealth, sexual hygiene, mental health, gender-related issues, caste issues etc.
The programs integrate healthcare workshops every month on topics likeself-respect, and menstrual, sexual, mental, and nutritious health into all programs. This enables women to become more empowered not only financially but also physically and psychologically. We at OFSI believe empowered women can not only uplift themselves but their entire family and community. Additionally, there is a door-to-door NCD screening program for underserved communities, where the ASHA helpers are trained and employed.
Q. You are working towards empowering women as decision-makers and drivers of community prosperity. What are the specific steps taken in this direction and what has the impact been so far?
A. Around 956 women directly benefit from the interest-free micro-credit program across the project locations in 3 states of South India. This will enable them to start their business and expand their growth. With the Socio-economic and healthcare programs, these women support and guide their whole family financially and emotionally. Close to 3500 women benefit from this program.
The steps taken are:
a. Access to Interest-free micro credit
b. Access to emotional well-being
c. Access to mental health by subject experts
d. Access to healthcare and doctors
e. Access to Nutrition and sanitation
f. Gender sensitization
g. Exposure visits to other towns, projects, our offices etc.
h. Cross-project learning
Through all these steps OFSI ensures that women are empowered to be decision-makers and drivers of the community change.
Q. Your social initiatives are focused on underserved communities in India. In your opinion, what are the most pressing challenges these communities face and how is Omega Healthcare helping in addressing them?
A. We are working in thematic areas of healthcare, women empowerment through interest-free micro-credit, skilling the youth in 21st-century skills and bridging the learning gap among the children.
The major challenge we observed in the rural community is accessibility to the services. So, we bring in programs to bridge the gaps in healthcare, livelihoods, skilling, and education.
- Access to micro-credit for the ultra-poor is a challenge due to a lack of education, exposure and skill sets. Reaching the unreached pockets of the community and allowing them to access interest-free micro-credit gives the women to experience hassle-free micro-credit to improve their business, which in turn builds their confidence. Also, we ensure that women have social security cards like Aadhar, Ration cards, insurance, etc to avail the govt; schemes/services. This helps them become self-confident and self-reliant.
- We provide door-to-door awareness and screening of non-communicable diseases. Here the women and men get an understanding of the basic health status and healthcare need, if any. The major challenge addressed here is to take health care services to the villages so people can get quality service at the doorstep so that they can avoid taking time off to go to PHC which often is the case for daily wage workers.
- We provide access to free skilling programs for college and high school dropout youth. These youngsters are identified and trained in 21st-century skills to get placed in the organized sector. The challenges are sensitizing the youth to enroll, complete the course, and secure a job. Building confidence is one of the major challenges in the program.
Overall, the aim is to become a bridging force for the underserved communities. Empowering women by facilitating workshops to become self-reliant, and self-confident is a key challenge area.
Q. Besides healthcare, are there other sectors wherein you have undertaken social projects? How are these projects progressing?
A. Omega Healthcare works under skilling, women empowerment, livelihood and education other than Healthcare. In Skilling, we work with school and collegedropouts, training them in 21st-century skills which make them employment-ready. These skill centres are present in Tamil Nadu and Telangana as a part of our ‘Project 10k’ initiative which was launched in 2022 aiming to skill 10k youth.
In 2022-23, 16,860 children in education, 1,667 youth in skilling initiative and 2,756 women and their families benefitted under these initiatives.
Q. On-ground implementation is crucial when it comes to any development project meant for the masses. How do you finalize your implementation partners and which organizations are you working with for your major projects?
A. We focus on a community-first approach. During this approach,the team spends a lot of time in the community to address and understand its needs. The relevant NGO partners are identified who are aligned with the OFSI vision of a community-first approach. The community decides how the program runs. Some of the partners include the Hope Foundation for healthcare and women initiatives in Tamil Nadu and Telangana, the Nudge Foundation’s End Ultra Poverty program in Bidar, Karnataka, the Unnati Foundation for skilling initiative and the Sambhav Foundation for healthcare projects.
Q. In your opinion, how can implementation partners enhance and streamline the reporting process for CSR programs to ensure effectiveness and simplicity?
A. Corporate partners and implementation partners have to work together. I believe that CSR programs can actually help implementation partners in coming up with reporting and M&E frameworks that work for that company.Monthly update calls, monthly field visits and employee engagement initiatives are among some best practices to ensure effectiveness on the ground while implementing a project.
Smart use of technology to have access to various community partners and stakeholders makes it easy to monitor the smooth functioning of programs on the ground.
Q. What recommendations do you have for policymakers to simplify the implementation of CSR programs? Are there any specific policy changes or incentives that could create a more favourable environment for the long-term success of these programs?
A. Some of the recommendations include:
- By clearly giving guidelines for reporting monitoring and evaluation
- To encourage collaborations between stakeholders and be supportive of multi-stakeholder engagements for community development
- Capacity building programs for CSR professionals in terms of their ability to design, implement and collaborate (More process around hiring trained CSR professionals to run the CSR programs)
- Additional tax subsidies /deductions/credits based on outcomes of programs
- R&D programs and innovation that have social innovation should be given some priority
- Rewards and recognition for high-impact programs
- Mandating employee engagement (if a company spends X hours that should be considered as a subsidy) makes it viable for more organizations to allow employees to volunteer without affecting productivity.
India is one of the few countries that has mandated corporate social responsibility as law. Therefore,we are way ahead of the giving curve in the impact space compared to many countries.
Q. Looking ahead, how do you see your social initiatives evolving and scaling up in the near to medium future? Are there any upcoming projects, partnerships or innovations that you are looking forward to?
A. I can see collaboration becoming a big part of social change. We are already talking to various partners to come together to amplify impact. The collaborative spirit for a common goal is definitely the way forward.
We are trying to expand and intensify our access to healthcare not just with physical healthcare but also in the space of mental and social-emotional health and we are hoping to provide access to mental health through our art therapy, and movement to various vulnerable children and women. The aim is to scale this program all over South India.
Under the women empowerment and livelihood vertical, beyond giving access to financial support we are enabling support to set up federations so they become champions and stakeholders of the community. This enables our women beneficiaries to take complete ownership of their programs. This is a robust sustainable model that can be scaled across the state.
